Epilog — Feelings at the passing of my Great Aunt, Carmen Chapan de Motola

I received a Facebook alert on Thursday from my second cousin, Gaston Motola Covarrubias, in Mexico City. He posted a note at 8am on Thursday 15 March 2012. “Sad. My grandmother died today.” He received 18 condolences from friends and family. His first cousin Mery Motola de Chernitzky commented: “We are all sad, Gaston. She was a person full of light and love to all. I saw her the day before. She was lucid as ever. Look at the picture on my profile. May we know no more sadness.”

Mery posted a picture of her and sister, Lyna, her aunt Dora, and Carmen from their visit on Wednesday. She expressed her feelings as follows: “They brought her to Mexico City. Tia Luisa [Raquel’s mother] informed me, so we went to give her a kiss, and she died at dawn [the next morning]. She was a person of integrity, full of wisdom, of love, of light, and the next day, well, she was gone. A few hours earlier, she was very lucid and feeling well. I enjoyed her company so much! Now I’m sad, but time helps us accept. The sensation of being able to enjoy her so much filled my heart with joy.”

I searched the Facebook page for her most loyal granddaughter, Raquel Treves Motola de Treizman, and found no notice, so I sent her the following e-mail: “Raquel, I’m glad you organized the party for her 95th birthday in January. I’m glad she knew how much she was loved. I feel very fortunate that I could attend her party and know her better and connect with all of you. Tell me what happened, and when and where you will bury her. In Mery’s Facebook, I see a photo taken on Wednesday in a place that was not her home, the day before her death. For all of you, I hope your sorrow will be tempered when you are all together.”

Raquel replied: “I was writing an email to let you know about my grandmother when I received your mail. I’m sure we are connected. On Tuesday morning they called us [from Cuautla] because [my grandmother] felt ill and already her mind was not very coherent. We brought her to Mexico and in the night she became very ill. She always asked me to never let them to put her in the hospital because she hated doctors, therefor we just went so that they could give her some oxygen and we brought her back to the house. On Wednesday, the whole family came to say goodbye and in the evening she felt well and was talking to everyone. In the night she became very ill, but we didn’t take her to the hospital and she died in the arms of me and my sister Becky. We gave her strong hugs and at all moments we made her feel loved and secure. At 5:40 A.M. on Thursday she gave her last breath and I’m almost certain that she immediately found her way to heaven. We will bury her on Thursday at noon in the new cemetery with my aunt, Ana, and my cousin, Gaston. I send you a big hug and I hope to see you soon.”

When I read the circumstances of her last days – that Raquel was able to bring her in from her distant home in Cuautla into her home in Mexico, that she was pampered with visits and affection from her family, that she recovered her impressive clarity and vision, and that she died in their arms – I am deeply touched emotionally. Every time I read Raquel’s report, I choke up and am moved to share how much I loved this impressive woman deeply, with great respect and admiration for a live lived fully in service to her family, with fierce determination to progress, with no apologies for her beliefs. She was an intense spot of color in world of bland apologists.

I first met Tia Carmen when I was doing family history research on my extended family in 1994. Although I was born in Mexico City, I was raised in California from the age of 4, and knew very few of my cousins and relations. I visited Mexico at age 12, and age 17, then stayed away for 19 years. I lost most of my grandparents early, and they were reticent to talk to little children, so little was known of their nativity in the Ottoman Empire and their lives in their native countries (Istanbul and Silivri, Turkey and Salonica, Greece). Returning to Mexico at age 40, I was anxious to meet my family. After the wedding for my youngest cousin, Alejandro Saltiel, and a Saltiel family reunion at my Uncle Chema’s house to expand the International Saltiel Family organization that had formed in Amsterdam earlier that year, my brother Pepe drove and I navigated as we made appointments and went from house to house interviewing and recording their family trees and learning about their lives.

Carmen gave me more information about our family than anyone. Born in 1917 in Mexico City, she was 18 years younger than her husband, Gaston Motola, the youngest of my father’s uncles from both sides. Although she was born in Mexico, she became familiar with the customs and personalities of all the emigrants to Mexico from their Sephardic Jewish roots in the Ottoman Empire and pioneered the Sephardic community of Mexico. She knew them all intimately, and knew their relations, kinships, loyalties, and was not reticent to speak of their accomplishments and weaknesses. She was very objective and accurate in her reporting, so I got solid information.

She was an independent woman, the product of a Jewish father from Aleppo, Syria, and a Hispanic mother from Zacatecas, Mexico, who married a widower at age 23. She was deeply spiritual, but not enamored with religious creeds. She had a modern and scientific mind, requiring proofs and evidence that were tangible. This made her driven to succeed and she progressed through life with a fierce determination, overcoming considerable challenges. She was impatient with the faithless works of those who professed piety but lived hypocritical lives of false traditions.

Carmen raised two families like her own, three of her own children, and the three offspring of her husband’s deceased first wife. The older children were only 12-16 years younger than she was, but she was a mature and resourceful woman. She commanded respect not only in the home, but in the community where she worked side by side in the dress factory with her husband and his older brother, “Don Jose”, my grandfather.

I return to Mexico with increasing frequency, now at least once each year for the past 5 years. On a trip to Mexico with Mom in March of 2010, Mom suffered a heart attack and we spent most of the time in the hospital. But I made some important new contacts. I became acquainted with more of my second cousins. Raquis Tre, the Facebook pen name for Raquel Trevis Motola de Treizman, quickly became one of my favorites. She organized a Motolada, a family reunion of the Motola clan in Mexico, for my return trip in November. She encouraged me to revisit her grandmother, now retired away from the lavish burdens of the Jewish Community in Mexico to a simple existence in a quiet city 90 miles from Mexico in Morelos state. I took my journey to Cuautla early one morning on Saturday November 20th, and succumbed to her trance.

I remember sitting down to chat and share her breakfast. I pulled out my laptop in case I had an opportunity to revisit the family trees or needed to look up a person to understand the relationship. She counseled me in all seriousness: “Nobody needs those machines. We lived better without them all of my life. We spent time with people.” I closed it and put it away, and listed for hours as she told me stories about her life and what happened when her brother in law (my grandfather) got sick and passed away, and my father inherited a share of their dress factory.

From my journal on that day, I quote: “Day 4 – Saturday 20 November 2010 I scheduled a road trip to see the volcanoes up close. They’re only 40 miles from Mexico City, but appear far more distant because of the smog and the quality of the access roads. Ixtaccihuatl and Popocatepetl are also about 40 miles from Cuautla (east of Cuernavaca) where I was heading to visit 93 year old Carmen Motola, widow of my father’s Uncle Gaston Motola. Crossing the city in the early morning without traffic still took a long time to reach the highways at the southeast corner of the valley that lead to Puebla and Cuautla. En route, I took a 1.5 hour detour off of Mexico 115 to ascend to the summit between the two volcanic peaks where a new national park module requires registration before continuing on to the peaks. I didn’t have time to press on or climb anything, but it was rewarding just to ascend through a forest and to get within a mile of the base of the smoking Popo. Descending, I pressed on to Cuautla and arrived at Tia Carmen’s home by 10am.”

“Although I had made a series of maps from Google Maps to help me find her home, the house numbers were written in small print with a marker pen on a wall, and the house next door had the same number and didn’t admit to knowing where Carmen lived. Fortunately, I had her number and was able to call her. Her caregiver came out and let me in, and we enjoyed several hours of friendly chatter about current and past events. What a mind, and what strong opinions! She is not afraid to voice her beliefs, and many have left offended, but I heard nothing but candid truths. She encouraged me to write the following quote: “The Bible is the best science fiction ever written.” Although deeply spiritual, she is no religious zealot, and uses her head and her heart to worship without cultural taboos. I enjoyed the trip immensely, and was so grateful that Raquel encouraged me to come (Raquel is her granddaughter, my second cousin, and the host for the Sunday Motola reunion). I will be calling her from the US to reconnoiter some more about her life, and especially about Don Jose and Dona Esther, which is how she still respectfully refers to my paternal grandparents. Her husband, Gaston Motola, was the youngest of the brothers, and Jose was the eldest, and they were partners in the dress factory until Jose succumbed quickly to cancer. It was tender hearing her talk about how she and Esther’s sister-in-law, Estrella (wife of Isidoro Behar), were his primary caregivers while he deteriorated in the hospital, until they were dismissed because neither was purely Jewish.”

The next day, after the Motola reunion at the social hall at Raquel’s condo (on Hacienda de Ciervo #8 in the Hacienda de las Palmas area of Huixquilucan in the State of Mexico just beyond the upper Lomas area of the Federal District of Mexico City), I wrote: “Arriving at Raquel Treizman’s, we immediately set about printing the Motola Family of Mexico family tree and stitching together 33 panels. She is quite down to earth, and we didn’t hesitate to get down on the tile floor and work as a pair. She presented me a gift of a CD containing all of the pictures she scanned and loaded from her grandmother’s collection. I can’t wait to view them with my father! We posted the family tree on the wall in the social hall downstairs. At first, only a handful of family members arrived, but before I could count them, the reunion exploded. So many people came and had updates to give me that I spent the next four hours working furiously writing on the wall-mounted charts with a pencil while most of the guests got to visit and nibble the yummy desserts. I met so many appreciative people, added some more generations and lines, and had a wonderful time. Raquel really delivered, with about 50-70 people in attendance.”

“The chart was originally 8 generations, but when we added a missing branch to the eldest levels, we reached 11 generations. I’ve got a lot of work to do to amend my records on the computer! They were warm, hospitable, and I’m going to have a lot of new folks to visit when I return, hopefully in July for Rafael Levy’s wedding. I hope that Corinna and Erik and Micah will come with me next summer. I can’t wait to show off my family!”

I really appreciated getting to know all of these Motolas in person, and was impressed at how accurate my information was from the original interviews with Carmen back in 1994. Having visited her the day before, meeting her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and their cousins and relations, meant so much more. Unfortunately, I never did get around to calling and interviewing her some more from the US. I had intentions to visit her again when I returned in July of 2011 with Corinna, but we spent most of our time in Cuernavaca, Ixtapa, Oaxaca, and the Yucatan, that didn’t get to visit Carmen or communicate with my cousins again. That’s why I’m so glad that I made the effort to return again in January this year with Susie and attend her 95th birthday celebration. You can read about that in my January blog entries.

Carmen will be missed by many, not the least by me. There are few remaining of her generation, and none more vibrant. I do not mourn her passing, only her absence from our lives. The empty chair in her humble home leaves a legacy for us to fill. May we live worthy of the legacy she passed on to us, seeking for truth and loving broadly. I know that I will hug her again in the next phase of our eternal life. I am counting on her assistance to unite the hearts of our family in heaven as I work to heal the generational hurts of those whose legacy I have inherited. I expect that she will require an accounting from me of the honor I have paid to her ancestors and descendants. May we continue to celebrate Motoladas for many years to come!

Delta Flight 514 – Mexico 2012 Day 10 – Sunday

We slept too warm, and the mattresses just aren’t very comfortable, so it wasn’t hard to get up at 7:30am and start packing. Within an hour, we were packed for the road and dressed for church, and finished our tamales at breakfast with Tio Alberto and enjoyed a parting treat of fresh papaya and guava with coconut juice. Church at the Lomas English Ward was pleasant, though a little sparse as it is holiday tomorrow for Constitution Day and many families were absent on a long weekend holiday. The chorister hinted at the virtue of experience gained from an ordeal she had endured for 18 months, and her husband hinted at it later. It got me searching the scriptures on my phone and I zeroed in on joy in a discourse by Paul. Leaving right after sacrament meeting, we spent the remainder of our morning visiting with Victor and Esther Tacher who live down the street on Sierra Guadarrama. He thought we were coming next weekend, so they were still in their pajamas, but we were still received cordially with homemade limeade and chocolate puffs. I always enjoy chatting with Victor, and am fascinated with how well connected he is to everyone in our family. His stylish flat, punctuated with copies of artwork executed expertly by his mother, Matilde, always fascinates me. He invited us to plan an adventure outing next time, like a day at the canal boats in Xochimilco. Sounds like a good plan. We left there just before noon, a little behind schedule, but arrived at Turmix in 15 minutes, circumventing some event that closed the Angel de la Independencia glorieta at Reforma, and finding our way through the back streets right down Sevilla to Sinaloa. Armando loaded our bags into his van and we rode with his wife to the airport along Eje 1 similar to how we had come out with Lily, with 3 hours to spare. We were able to weigh and adjust our checked baggage carefully, check into Delta on a short line, then detour to the fast food court for a final meal. I ordered some fish filets, one in a coconut sauce, and another in a spicy Mexican salsa. A shared liter of guanabana juice left us ready for the journey. Security went smoothly. Time in the terminal passed quickly, and we left on time and are now one third of our way into our flight and I’ve already had a nap. It’s snack time, so until later… I finished Finding Mercie during the flight. It was hard to hide my feelings during some very tender and astonishing moments in the story.

While at the airport, I answered an e-mail from Thomas and Lynda Fernandez in Colorado Springs, Colorado. “We are wondering how your recovery is progressing. We would really appreciate a short update.” “Thanks for asking about me. I’m due for an email update to all my fans. The cancer is all gone, and I’m still pursuing treatments to prevent its return. My recovery was swift, but I still have limited range of motion in my mouth. It only opens part way, from the trauma of a 6 hour procedure. Therapy is slowly loosening it up, and time. I lost 20 pounds because i couldn’t eat well. It’s coming back, hopefully not all of it. Since the operation, I’ve had 2 very busy months at work, so I took a week off to visit family in Mexico on the occasion of a 95 year-old aunt’s birthday. Susie came and we drove all over central Mexico for 9 days exploring and visiting friends and family. We’re at the Mexico City airport now heading home to get back to work tomorrow. It was a great escape. But I miss my mountains.” After a busy week at work, during which I billed well ($4,650), I spent the weekend close to home. Planning ahead for some snowshoeing now and backpacking this summer, Gary Myers asked, “How are you doing, Ed? Any developments on your health issues?” “My health is great, thank you, until and if the burden of cancer returns again. The Lord tells me that there is nothing I can do to prevent its return, meaning, it’s in his hands. That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be careful about not feeding the cancer, but other than keeping the commandments so that I’m worthy of his interventions, I can’t prevent it, only he can. Hopefully, the purpose of this trial has achieved a sufficient change in me so that I won’t need to keep going through this burden again. “I’m feeling great! I lost 20 pounds after surgery and have gained back at least 5 and have lots of energy and strength. I had to learn to swallow again and eat with a reduced oral opening, but that’s much better. From up to 8 therapy sessions per week, I’m down to one every other week. My 9 day celebration to Mexico with my daughter Susie was a great relief after working so hard to heal and at work. We roamed through 9 Mexican states surrounding the federal district and saw some awesome places in a drought stricken high plains that is littered with mountains. We didn’t get to climb the volcano to 15,000’ (raining and so foggy that we couldn’t see 100 yards), but there’s always next time. “I’ve only had 45 minutes on the trail since I returned, and I’m anxious to get on the trail this coming Saturday. Are you available? “Due to the costs in time and money for surgery and recovery and therapy, I’ve used up all of 12 days of 2012 vacation already, so I have to earn comp time to get away. But I’m anxious to get in those long weekends backpacking at the destinations you recommended. I’ll build the time off, so count me in on your plans. I’m going to California for a three day weekend on the 24th to hike and kayak. Want to get away from Friday night until Tuesday morning? You’ll only miss work on Monday the 27th.” In retrospect, the vacation was a great success, tranquil, with few difficulties. We covered 2,400 km (1,500 miles) on highways and byways in 9 states surrounding the Federal District of Mexico. Truly, the altiplano (high plains) of Mexico aren’t very flat. They’re full of impressive mountain ranges and many significant population centers. The drought has desiccated much of the native flora, and the air was grey with an accumulation of dust. But the wide open spaces and picturesque nature of Mexico shone brightly. Ed Motola 2/19/2012 Salt Lake City, Utah

Family time in Mexico City – Comida at home of Esther Bazan Saltiel de Behar – Mexico 2012 Day 9 – Saturday afternoon

We enjoyed our visit with Esther, looking through the Sefarad book, and visiting upstairs with Annie, who was sick in bed with food poisoning. Her husband, Daniel, called from work. He’s working as a manager at an alcohol factory and they were running a late shift. Connecting to their wireless, we took turns catching up on e-mails.

Woof Woof announced the arrival Basha, huge Bernese Mountain Dog, and his humans: Aby , Miriam, and Joanna. Pepe and Liz arrived shortly thereafter, and the meal was served, four separate casseroles with chicken, ground beef, potatoes, and frijoles, plus a tangy green salsa. Hagen Daz chocolate ice cream cones were only topped by the entertainment from Joanna who is so precocious that she draws all of the attention. She took up ice skating recently, and took first place with her gymnastic moves, including a bandera. We got to see her performance on a video clip on her mother’s cell phone. I had previously penciled them into the family tree and now updated it with names, dates, and locations. Miriam is expecting their son on March 8 by caesarian. Leaving Eshter’s home in Colonia Navarte at 4:30pm, we made one wrong turn at a glorieta and ended up on Universidad instead of Dr. Vertiz. Seeing a turnoff to Xola, I realized too late that this is extension of Xola which heads east instead of north, and we ended up on Tlalpan heading south. Turning around, I took Cardenas to the Viaducto and got on the trans-city freeway one entrance east of where we normally do and still arrived in Lomas at the Cofre de Perote address of Paty Lazard Saltiel and Stanley Arundell (whose grandmother was a Saltiel) at 5:00pm. Traffic was really light. Getting off at Palmas from the south required the under-over-around-and-through maneuver between the Periferico and the junction of Masaryk and Palmas which can be so tricky. Ascending to their Sierra neighborhood in Lomas de Chapultepec, two trips around the block verified that there was no street parking available, so a call for help resulted in Stanley coming down in house slippers to admit us to his tight underground parking terrace. Our visit with Stanley and Paty was very friendly, mostly in English, and the Sefarad book was a big hit with both of them. At the end, I had to gently pull it away from Paty or we could never have left! Only while viewing a collage of family and travel pictures on the big screen was our attention not revolving around the book. They have been on many travels to England and Turkey, and a cruise from Long Beach, California to Panama, Colombia, and Aruba. The beer import business is succeeding and needs more capital to stock more inventory as it sells faster than they can collect and fund another order to keep the flow constant. Supermarkets are their primary outlet, although fine restaurants are still part of direct sales. Their two dachshounds, and their son’s cat, entertained us with their individual characters, and it was no joke to Paty that the hounds are suffering from the loss of their fluffy Pomeranion companion who died at 18 years recently. I made multiple attempts to reach Chema, and we finally drove up to his house in Tecamachalco, but no one would answer the door, even though we could tell that someone was watching TV in their bedroom. None of the phones would respond, and a call to Armando brought no relief since he didn’t have his radio with him to contact La Señora. The security man on the block confirmed that she was out and he was in, but we had no way to contact him. Susie left him a note and a gift which Armando will have to deliver. Returning to Tio Alberto’s house early, we started laundry, and never really ate dinner, sated from the comida at Esther’s home. Susie retired to read, and I managed to get in six rounds of backgammon with Tio Alberto, losing 5. Knowing just what he wants, he gets so many lucky rolls with his positive attitude and vision. In an e-mail dialog with his daughter, Anita, we discussed his skill at tabli. “Tu Papi me gano 5 de los 6 juegos de tabli. Nunca he visto tanta suerte con dobles!” “Efectivamente, no se como le salen tantos dobles a mi papá. Siempre es así cuando jugamos con el. Lo que se me ocurre es que mi papá es un “abuelito suertido”, o que se aconseja con los dados. :)” It took him a while to settle down with much coughing and hacking. I got hooked on reading my novel, Finding Mercie, which has made little progress since arriving in Mexico, and had to force myself to quit at midnight.

Mexico City Temple – Mexico 2012 Day 9 – Saturday morning

We got up at 6:30am and made it to the Mexico City Temple for the 7:30am session. Navigating by Guia Roji while Susie drove made it easy. It also helped that the traffic was minimal. Entering the temple restored an instant sense of peace, and we enjoyed the session. I stayed awake throughout the creation scenes, and only started to drift off during the ordinances. Meditation and prayer time in the Celestial Room was well invested, with no hurray to depart. We ate in the temple cafeteria: nopales with sausage and tamales Oaxaquenas. Susie had some non-alcoholic Sangria and I drank some packaged Guava juice.

After changing and taking pictures outside, we went by the Salt Lake City Store (an LDS bookstore down the street) and got some ice cream. By then it was noon, and we arrived at Esther’s house over an hour late, but tranquil.

Morelia, Michoacan to Mexico City, D.F. – Mexico 2012 Day 8 – Friday

Along the way, we passed by a dramatic weed control fire.

The expansive countryside was pastoral but dry. The only extraordinary pause was a red “kelp cutter” harvesting a swath of algae off the surface of shallow Lake Cuitzeo with a skimmer.

It occurred to me that we were nearing the Monarch Preserve, so we drove off onto smaller roads and had a fantastic sampling of seafood tostadas in Maravatio, then drove up to one of the villages (Senguio) near the reserve.

From the campground, it was another hour by transport, plus 30 minutes, and at 4:00pm, it was too late to go. If we had planned for this destination and left earlier, and skipped Morelia, we would have seen something spectacular.

En route from Senguio to Toluca, we passed through some attractive countryside on two-lane highways, and I will want to make Tlalpujahua a destination someday.

Reconnecting with the toll roads at Atlacomulco, we pressed onward towards Toluca, diverted around the city to Lerma, and we arrived in Mexico around 7:00pm. Unfortunately, when offered the sudden option of taking the libramiento to the municipality of Naucalpan, I directed Susie to stay on the toll road towards Santa Fe which took us down towards the primary entrance to Mexico instead of staying in the Lomas above the Federal District. Approaching the Y-junction of Reforma and Constituyentes lost us all of the advantage of continuing on to Naucalpan and the Interlomas heights, and we got stuck in a major traffic jam. By the time we met up with my first cousin, Raquel Bazan de Magriso, at the Bosques Plaza VIPS at 8:00pm, we were the last customers, but we got to sit and chat and enjoy some wonderful tortilla soup and pozole. However, the enchiladas Suizas were terrible. Unable to reach Chema, we arrived at Alberto’s house at 10:00pm, and were asleep by 10:30pm.

Morelia, Michoacan – Mexico 2012 Day 7 – Friday morning

Pachi loaded us up with more tamales, and we finally hit the road just before 9:00am. The roads were quick and the tolls steep (over $70) as we cruised past dry countryside to Morelia, finishing one book on CD and starting another (Shadow Hunter, by Guy and Jeffrey Galli, another LDS spy novel about anti-terrorism in the middle east).

Morelia was another big, congested city, and after an hour of picture taking around the central plaza, and shopping the artesanal for gifts and candy, we resumed our journey.

Mazamitla, Jalisco – Mountain Pueblo Magico – Mexico 2012 Day 6 – Thursday afternoon

In Mazamitla, we walked around, shopped for food and treats, and enjoyed a buffet of comida casera in a small family café. It wasn’t nearly as attractive as Bernal, but it was colder here, and only half of the shops were open. Pachi kept a constant tour guide dialog going. I left the phone and e-mails in the car, and got naps in both directions.

Had we planned this day better, we would have left early and come directly here, then paused by the lake on the return. This village offers ecotourism, and it would have been fun to get on some ponies and ride into the hills to the waterfall.

We returned home after dark and shared the corn and pineapple tamales and vanilla and guava atole with their family (daughters Edith and Berenice, her husband, Alfredo, and Beto’s sister Lupita). I also got to chat with Beto’s friend, Rosalia Behar, who works for the Sefardic community in Guadalajara, and she is going to try to help me contact the Guadalajara Motolas after her daughter’s wedding. Now Susie is sharing her photo albums on Facebook, and I’m wrapping things up so I can go to bed.

Lake Chapala, Jalisco – Mexico 2012 Day 6 – Thursday morning

This morning, I’ve been catching up on this journal and e-mails while we have an internet connection. We’re going with Beto (Jose Humberto) and his wife Maria de la Paz (Pachi) to Chapala on Lake Chapala and then to Mazamitla, another Pueblo Magico in the mountains south of the lake. It was rewarding to rest and let someone else do the driving. Beto and Pachi took us to Chapala to see the lake, then on to a mountain village, Mazamitla. The lake was low, but still picturesque, with herons and white pelicans along the shore. It is an impressive and large lake, albeit shallow to an extreme. Back in 1954, it was so shallow that one could walk to an island several miles offshore! We walked around and saw many north-American couples enjoying their retirement.

We found atole and tamales (dulces and rajas) at a restaurant facing the plaza.

The central market was small, but the fruit was nonetheless stunning in its colorful displays. I purchased a Mamey.

We enjoyed some ice cream on the promenade along the shore.

Driving around the lake past Ajijic and Jocotepec, we climbed through some attractive pine and oak forests to the Mazamitla village.

Guanajuato, Guanajuato – Mexico 2012 Day 6 – Wednesday

Again I arose early, packed up, and enjoyed chatting with Tina over breakfast. Again, David stayed in bed, so we only had a brief visit. I had lent him the Sefardic memory book the day before and they had enjoyed finding an old recipe for some Arabian treat. Departing for the west, we realized that we left behind some bags so we left Mauricio a message and we hope to catch up to him in Mexico. Missing one highway turnoff, we got to see a little more of Queretaro on surface streets, then headed west past industrial Salamanca and Irapuato and up into Guanajuato.

On the outskirts of Guanajuato, we pulled into a roadside pottery stall with their colorful wares all laid out. Susie purchased several pots to take home.

Guanajuato! What a maze of tunnels!

Guanajuato is indeed fun to explore: on foot through narrow passageways and by car through the winding maze of tunnels under the city.

How do the busses fit through the narrow streets!

We took a lot of pictures of this colorful and vertical city. The hillsides were all terraced and covered with houses in bright primary colors.

We ate fresh bread straight out of the oven, stuffed with cheese and rajas, crunchy tacos in the Embajada plaza, granadina (passion fruit) and chirimoya (Soursop).

As the children came out of school, we enjoyed seeing them play, escorted by grandmas, nmothers, and fathers, hand-in-hand, a wonderful familial scene.

On the way out, Susie drove the maze, and we finally crossed the Centro Historico.

. On the steps of a cathedral, a graduating class of hundreds of professionals were all poised in the same light blue shirts, and as we waved, they waved and cheered loudly for the camera. It was a riotous scene!

The rest of the journey to Guadalajara was all toll roads, fast miles over a distant landscape. I spent most of that time writing this journal. We were able to listen to our book on CD again, and the miles passed quickly. I ate up the paella that Tina had packed for us. We crossed right through the middle of the city of Guadalajara on ample roads without serious traffic and found our way to the Chavez home. We met three of their daughters and grandchildren, and passed a pleasant evening. And of course we took time to gather the related genealogy of his grandson, whose father was Jaime Motola Danon. The mild fish dinner was a welcome change, and we slept early and well.

Queretaro at night – Mexico 2012 Day 5 – Tuesday evening

We were going to go eat and visit Tequisquipan as well, but with paella waiting for us back at the house, we returned directly to Queretaro around 4:00pm. Susie and I both napped along the way. Pausing at the house for several hours to write e-mails and edit pictures, I was so impressed at what Tina had prepared. Accustomed to catering for large crowds, she had made enough paella to feed a dozen people. And we were too full to eat then, so it wasn’t until after touring the Zona Historico of Queretaro that we returned with appetites to a late meal. While trying to find a parking space in the Centro, Mauricio was cited for obstructing traffic, and had to pay the fine in order to get our license plate back. Meanwhile, accompanied by Tina, we enjoyed the free music and dancing for the over 60’s crowd in one of the plazas, and just walked around taking in the ambiance of this clean and orderly city. One more pass past the illuminated aqueduct, and we came home to paella and rest. We discussed routes and options, and finally decided to skip San Miguel de Allende and just go direct to Guanajuato the following day.

Bernal, Queretaro – Pueblo Magico – Mexico 2012 Day 5 – Tuesday afternoon

Bernal Rock Shop at base of Peña de Bernal, Queretaro – Mexico Day 5 – Tuesday afternoon

Peña de Bernal, Queretaro – Mexico 2012 Day 5 – Tuesday afternoon

From Queretaro, he drove us out into the countryside to Bernal, a Pueblo Magico 50 km east of Queretaro. The wild ride past construction along the canyon road towards Tequisquipan was reminiscent of Disneyland’s Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Arriving at Bernal, we were delighted to find that the village was well maintained, quiet, and so much fun to explore. Backed by the third tallest chunk of rock of rock in the world, Peña de Bernal was accessible about half-way to the top, after which climbing equipment would be required. We climbed up and ran down, purchased gifts and artwork, toured rock shops, ate comida casera (homemade food) at a local restaurant, and had an all-round wonderful time snapping many pictures of scenic backdrops and the colorful village. I hope we come across another Pueblo Magico. Bernal will remain the scenic highlight of the journey.

Queretaro, Queretaro – Mexico 2012 Day 5 – Tuesday morning

We arrived in Queretaro around 9:00pm on Monday night, beautifully lit with sweeping views from the Campamiento and Marques district on top of the hill. We visited briefly with Mauricio’s parents, David and Tina, but retired soon thereafter with hardly two pages read in our novels. I’m reading Finding Mercie, and tender LDS novel written by Blaine M. Yorgason, and Susie is finally finishing up the eco-terrorist thriller, Wet Desert, by Gary Hensen, which dramatizes the destruction of Glen Canyon Dam and the effects of the sudden dumping of Lake Powell upon the downstream canyons and dams along the Colorado River. David Saltiel Aelion is my mother’s youngest Saltiel cousin, 8 years her junior. Currently bedridden, too sick to eat from taking Interferon for his Hepatitis-C, he has lost a lot of weight. Two months into a year-long treatment, he’s depressed and uncertain whether the cure is worth the cost. He feels miserable, and feels like it’s killing him. He was better off before he started this treatment. His wife, Tina Gomez de Saltiel, is so friendly and easy to talk to, that we shared a lot of information about our lives. I told her about how my first wife was barren but became fertile after I gave her a priesthood blessing. I learned how they met when she was very young (15) and he was ten years older, became best friends, and how she studied Judaism, converted to Judaism from Catholicism, and was accepted into the Jewish community. What a contrast to David’s older brother, Salvador (Chavo), who married a Catholic, Aurora Miranda (Lily’s parents), and followed her path, raising their children as Catholics.

Arising early on Wednesday, we chatted a lot with Tina, looked at family albums, confirmed their recent genealogical data, then packed up for a day of touring with Mauricio. Starting with the aqueduct that runs to the former convent, we learned how the Marquis funded the aqueduct to show his love for his 15 year-old niece who didn’t return his affections and sequestered herself in the nunnery.

Huizapan, Hidalgo – Mexico 2012 – Monday evening

Avoiding congestion closer to Mexico had a price. The secondary roads are two-lane, pass through frequent villages, with many speed bumps and an occasional signal to slow you down, so we didn’t average a very high speed. Between Ixmiquilpan and Huichapan in the state of Hidalgo, it was dark and rainy with almost no villages, but hilly and windy, and by the time we arrived in Huichapan, I had a rare headache. Mauricio had offered to drive when I hit a few speed bumps too fast, inferring that I didn’t know how to drive in Mexico, which only steeled my resolve to drive on. With the men in front, and Susie busy editing photos in the back seat on the laptop, the conversation dwindled and there was tension. Normally, we occupy this time with books on CD, and indeed, we were in the middle of a great story that we had started upon departing Cuernavaca, The Hainan Incident, by DM Coffman, an LDS spy novel set in China in 2001, right before 9-11. But it would be rude to Mauricio to turn on an English novel in the middle of the story, so we drove on silently, deep in thought. After a great meal of huaraches, I was only too happy to rest and let him drive, chiding him back when he hit a few topes too hard at the beginning. But the tension eased when Susie rode up front and I napped in the back, at least for me. Susie had to put up with our driving, so she may not have been very comforted.

Teotihuacan Pyramids, Mexico – Mexico 2012 Day 4 – Monday afternoon

We avoided the roads to Mexico entirely by diverting over the pass towards Puebla, then north from San Martin Texmelucan towards Pachuca, then west again a short distance on Highway 132 to the pyramids at San Juan de Teotihuacan. Parking at Gate 2 nearest the Pyramid of the Moon, we paused to eat the last of our avocado tortas, visited with some American girls who were studying abroad in Pachuca, then headed into the pyramids around 1:30pm.

Access to the Pyramid of the Moon is only allowed halfway up. The summit is deteriorated and the steps haven’t been stabilized to allow safe passage. However, the ascent of the Pyramid of the Sun is assured with handrails. The steps become increasingly short and steep. Half way up, we detoured at the second of the four terraces and walked totally around the pyramid, marveling at the extent of the excavation and the sheer size of the ancient city. Lastly, we paused briefly to look at the artifacts and interpretations in the museum.

At the time we started our tour of the pyramids, Mauricio had said that he was leaving work in Mexico and headed for Indios Verdes where he would catch a bus to Teotihuacan. But my phone discharged from roaming far from a cell, so I carried my charger around and took a little siesta in the foyer of the museum while it charged. Coming out at 3:30pm, we called him and were disappointed that he was still at Indios Verdes, the northern bus terminal for Mexico City. Buses were no longer running this late to Teotihuacan, a tourist destination. So, I suggested that he head north to Pachuca, and we would find him there. Retracing our path east, then north to Pachuca, we arrived minutes behind Mauricio who came running across the boulevard, hopped over an iron fence, and dove into the car. Then, we began a long scenic route into the rain and the night en route to Queretaro. I’ll not forget the rock formation atop a ridge that looked like Wiley Coyote’s ears, one extended sharply upwards in a massive triangle of rock, and the other adjacent and truncated as if folded down.

Mexico Volcanos – Mexico 2012 Day 4 – Monday morning

Monday morning found us up at 6:00am and on the road in 30 minutes on the free road to Tepoztlan, then the toll road back to Cuautla, then north on the free roads to Amecameca. Climbing up to the pass at Paso de Cortes, the mountain foliage and views were stunning, but the pass was so foggy that we could scarcely see a ¼ mile. Disappointed that we couldn’t even see the volcanos from the pass, we pointed our way back down the mountain and north towards Teotihuacan. We had come prepared with alpine gear to camp and climb Iztacchihuatl, the extinct volcano, which was visible during our travels over the weekend, but now, both Izta and Popo (Popocatepetl, the live volcano) were totally obscured.

Cuernavaca, Morelos – Mexico 2012 Day 3 Sunday night

The drive towards the toll road back north to Cuernavaca was filled with smaller villages as the road down had been. But as the day waned, the skies began to close in. The weather had been perfect, until this evening. The toll road which we had covered southbound the previous evening was now thick with northbound traffic from weekend revelers returning to Mexico, and we crawled into the Morelos exit at the south end of Cuernavaca. Thick clouds gathered, closed in, and started to bubble underneath. “It’s not the rainy season until February,” Beto chided, but right after we dropped him off at the Cuernavaca bus depot around 6:30pm, it started to pour. So rather than travel another two hours to camp on the mountain at Paso de Cortes, we opted to spend the night with old friends here. But first, after seeing Beto safely off on the bus, we at a fine meal at Don Pollo, arrachera and roasted chicken, and that wonderful chipotle and cheese chicken soup. Lacking phone numbers for Sister Rabago and her daughter, Gennie de Portugal, we invited ourselves to spend the night and they took us in warmly. Her husband, the Bishop, was on his way out on a business trip to Chihuahua. Sister Leticia Rabago now lives in the apartment under this house where we stayed last July, and her son moved here to Cuernavaca into her home so that both the Rabago and Portugal families can help care for her. She got very sick two weeks after our last visit in July, an unknown disease where she was producing too many red blood cells, so they treated her with chemo pills, which made her very sick, required hospitalization, got pneumonia, recovered, then couldn’t walk due to a displaced disk, but she’s opting out of surgery, and bearing the discomfort. While visiting with mother and daughter in her room, I was offered a powdered sugar treat. I couldn’t bite it, so I tried to break it in half. It shattered and scattered crumbs and powdered sugar all over the carpet, and we had an embarrassing moment. I explained my debility, and while Jenny went to say goodbye to her husband and Sister Rabago took a phone call, we shook out the rug in the pouring rain. Returning, Jenny did some matchmaking for Susie, to a doctor in Toluca, so perhaps after Jenny introduces them via Facebook, we may be making a stop in Toluca. Retiring to the children’s room (Diego would sleep with his grandmother), we hooked up to the internet and took turns catching up on e-mails via phone and laptop until midnight. “57 hours in Mexico seems like a week,” I wrote, “for all the roads and canyons and mountains we’ve seen, to say nothing of too much urban congestion. The toll road coming into Cuernavaca tonight was stop and go with weekend traffic from Acapulco to Mexico, and we were only too pleased to get off in Cuernavaca and find a safe haven.” To my Mom, I added, “It’s late, but we have internet tonight, so a few more details while I have the laptop to type on instead of the phone. You asked who we had seen. “Lily Dominguez Saltiel, Lily’s daughter (Lily Saltiel Miranda, Chavo’s daughter), picked us up at the airport. We arrived early, and she arrived earlier, so she was waiting for us while studying (a medical student is always studying) in the Burger King just outside of customs. We picked up the car at Turmix from the guard. No one else was there that late on a Friday night. We stopped at Costco in Polanco for supplies, then met my cousin Beto Levy Motola on the street outside his apartment to avoid the hassle of parking. We couldn’t see him next weekend because the casino in Las Vegas invited him to come up next Friday for four days to enjoy the Superbowl. He gave us the Sefardic memory book (1000 pesos), and we spent the night with Lily and Lily. David Saltiel Aelion’s son, Mauricio Arie Saltiel Gomez also visited us there, and we are meeting him in Teotihuacan tomorrow and taking him with us to his parent’s in Queretaro. “We picked up Beto Nolla Saltiel on Saturday morning. His parents were with Gerardo’s parents in Veracruz. Beto traveled with us over the weekend, to Cuautla, San Gaspar, Las Estacas, and back to Cuernavaca, all in the garden state of Morelos, with greenhouses and nurseries everywhere making Susie ooh and ahh. In Cuautla, of course we saw my great aunt Carmen Chapan de Motola, plus her daughters, Dorita and Luisa, and many of their children and brothers with whom I’m less familiar. My first cousin, Santiago Levy Motola (Beto’s brother), was there, more because his wife, Rosy Beracha Motola, Dorita’s daughter, is Carmen’s granddaughter. “Beyond that, I’ve written about our Mormon friends who have given us shelter last night and tonight.”

Water Sports, Las Estacas – Mexico 2012 Day 3 – Sunday afternoon

Around noon, we returned to the car to change clothes and pack for a day of leisure along the banks of the river. After eating the rest of the papaya, and bolillo and avocado tortas, we each took three turns on the swing and plunged into the cool river. I landed badly, and my left ribs still smart days later from landing poorly. We then moved camp to the main section and snorkeled and napped and played games for hours. There were beautiful tropical fish in the water, blue ones and a few sword-tails, bright and colorful and tame. There were small grebe-like ducks diving and swimming underwater. Fresh water springs left a darker grey residue around their geysers, and a thermocline clouded the warmer surface water from the cold springs. It was a paradise! We played Idiot with the cards for a few rounds, read, and napped, until we actually felt a little too much sun. At the end, I wore myself out as I swam and finned a long way upstream, then flew quickly with the current downstream, then labored to return back upstream. Eating avocado tortas again while they changed and showered, I watched Mexican and Japanese scuba divers enter and exit the river and practice their skills. It seemed so confining to war all that gear just to stay at 20 feet below the surface at the deepest pool at the bend in the river.

Las Estacas, Tlaltizapan, Morelos – Mexico 2012 Day 3 – Sunday morning

We started by touring the nursery at the entrance of the park, then toured the developed and manicured grounds throughout.

Jiutepec to Tlaltizapan – Mexico 2012 Day 3 – Sunday morning

We slept well, arose early, showered and shaved, and had a great breakfast of a fresh banana shake with honey and vanilla in a milk base, plus peanut butter on wheat bread. Then, we packed up rushed off to the Yiutepec Ward where Susie and I promptly fell asleep after the sacrament was served in the middle of a talk about tithing. Afterwards, we took group pictures with the Avelar family, and joked about falling asleep on Domingo, referred to as Dormingo, a play on the words dormir and Domingo, sleep and Sunday.

After church, we drove back towards Cuautla, then south to Tlaltizapan and the balneario at Las Estacas. It was a beautiful place of natural splendor, a natural spring of crystal clear water flowing in a swift current through a developed and manicured park.

Cuautla to San Gaspar – Mexico 2012 Day 1 – Saturday evening

Leaving with the rest of the guests about 5:00pm, we drove up into Cuautla and took the old highway towards Yautepec and Jiutepec, couldn’t find the turnoff to Emilanio Zapata, and ended up on the Acapulco toll road heading south until we found our way back to Zapata. It was dark by then, and after 9 phone calls and much anxiety, Felix found us and guided us to San Gaspar.

Our first call to the Avelar home reached Felix’s father Jose Felix, Sr. He didn’t really listen. When I told him we were at the address he had given us in Emiliano Zapata on the road of the same name, he pictured us being in Yiutepec. He said he would come get us in 5 minutes. We ate on the street while waiting, some tasty and tough corn on the cob, sprinkled with chile and cheese. But no one came. Placing another call, he said that his children were waiting for us on the plaza by the clock tower. We could see the clock tower up the hill, like a Christmas tree covered in lights. But it was wrong way on a one way street. While trying to reach it on one way streets, I ended up back where I’d begun twice, and finally took a turn that ended up being wrong way on a one way, and was told to pull over by a city policeman two blocks from my destination. I ignored him. He came jogging up a few minutes later, huffing and puffing, and directed me to a traffic cop. He took my license, but listened to my pleas, and allowed me to search the plaza for my friends while he processed my license. He was congenial, and let me off with a warning to obey the signs and laws. Meanwhile, no one came, and I became increasingly agitated. Multiple calls to the house assured me that they were there looking for me. Eventually, they listened and we came to the mutual understanding that they were at the plaza in Yiutepec and we were at the plaza in Zapata. Altogether, it took 9 phone calls to get connected before we were found. The drive to San Gaspar took another 20 minutes along a winding mountain road and then down into the village at the bottom of the canyon, not exactly “close” to Zapata as Felix implied. His parent’s home was ample, and the grounds had papaya, banana, mango, citrus, and other trees. His brother Rafael and his wife also live there, but the only grandchildren appear to be Felix’s four children in Utah. He confided that after months of separation, he and Arcelia are now definitely estranged and planning to separate permanently.

Carmen Motola’s 95th Birthday Party, Cuautla, Morelos – Mexico 2012 Day 1 – Saturday afternoon

We still arrived back at the house in time to join Carmen for a breakfast of papaya and mango before anyone arrived. That was the best part, having some one-on-one time with her. She has informed opinions about everything, total recall, and a forceful personality. Her body is weak. She has lost more weight. But her spirit is triple anyone else’s.

Eventually, many of her children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren arrived, about 35 family members, but she especially appreciated us who came to her birthday party from so far away who weren’t her direct descendants.

During the party, I got busy verifying and updating the family tree with multiple members of the family, and added a lot of details from Meyer Beracha Motola and Becky Treves Motola whom I hadn’t met before. Judith Contente Motola de Motola and her husband Gaston Motola Covarrubias were especially helpful in giving me information on both lines, as were Dorita Motola de Beracha, her daughter Rosy Beracha de Levy, and her husband, my first cousin, Santiago Levy Motola. And of course, Raquel Treves Motola de Treizman took the time to review the entire tree, adjust details, and determine which of the ancestors are alive or deceased. Only one other 5th generation descendant remains, a Victoria Avayou, who is also 95.

I shared the Sefardic book with Carmen , Raquel, Dorita, and Santiago, and they confirmed that the picture of my father with his parents was probably at his sister Dora’s wedding. I had never seen a photo of my grandfather Jose Motola and grandmother Esther Behar before his death, and they looked so happy. She was indeed heavy, wide faced and happy, not the skinny and gaunt widow I knew.

The food and company were great, but as usual, I really struggled to eat without a lot of mucous and by the time I was finished with this buffet, and every meal before and after, I had an embarrassing pile of napkins accumulated from constantly blowing my nose. I sat across from Carmen, and enjoyed seeing her daughters and granddaughters serve her, plying her to try a little bit of this specialty or that specialty that they had prepared. What she couldn’t eat then, she instructed her attendants to save for her dinner. Everything was great, but I found that I had difficulty eating tortillas, and had to bypass the blue corn sopes. But the tinga, guacamole, rice, mole, fideos, and everything else they brought was wonderful homemade food. And the desserts of devil’s food cake, rice pudding, and other cake were fabulous.

While I was kept busy much of the time, Susie and Beto played backgammon, as did others, and I also got to play a little. And they mixed and mingled as numerous members took interest in them and practiced their English. Becky’s 19 year old bearded son, Rafa, who spoke fluent English without an accent after going to school in New England, looked much older. Susie looked much younger, and they were surprised at each other’s ages. We all visited with some of the family after the meal in the living room, and felt totally included. I will miss this family. Raquel and her sisters, Sarah and Becky, Laila, their sons and daughters, Gaston and Judith and their darling daughters, Karen and Sharon.

Cuautla, Morelos – Mexico 2012 Day 2 – Saturday morning

Arising at 6:00am, we packed and departed without waking anyone, and reached the Nolla’s home in Colonia Navarte near the Viaducto on Dr. Vertiz about 7:40am, only a little late. Leaving gifts for Beto’s parents who were in Veracruz with Gerardo’s parents, we loaded up the ice chest and a few supplies, and headed off via the Viaducto, Periferco Sur, and found our way to the autopista to Cuernavaca without much difficulty.

It was a clear day and the traffic was light, so we reached the summit at Tres Marias without delay, then took the cutoff to Cuautla before descending into Cuernavaca. This route has many impressive formations, peaks, and vistas which make for an impressive journey along the cutoff through Tepoztlan.

Coming into the south end of Cuautla in Plan de Ayala, I realized that I missed the turnoff at Balneario Agua Hedionda and was headed for the Centro, so we turned around and found Carmen’s house with little difficulty. We were early. Calling Raquel at 9:30am, she was just leaving Mexico. She had meant that she was leaving at 9:00am, not arriving at that time. Oh well, Carmen was in the shower, so we busied ourselves erecting the family tree on her patio wall, then drove into the Centro to kill time, buying more fruit and taking in the crowded street scenes.

Mexico City, Distrito Federal – Mexico 2012 Day 1 – Friday

Our departure was routine. Delta flight 513 from SLC to MEX left on time and arrived 30 minutes early. We bought food in the terminal to tide us over so that we wouldn’t be starving when we arrived. Phone calls and intermittent internet service allowed some last minute communications. On board, the flight was almost full. We napped, read a little, and enjoyed the views. The views to the east were different than I’m used to from the other side of the airplane (I usually sit on the right side, viewing west). We could see the Granddaddy Lakes basin where I love to go backpacking in the High Uintahs.

We were the last to disembark and clear customs, but it all went really fast, and we got the green light in customs. We called Lily when we came out into the terminal to tell her we had arrived early, and she said, “I see you. I’m over here in the Burger King.” Waving from the restaurant adjacent to customs, we knew we were off to a good start.

We exchanged dollars for pesos, loaded up her car with our heavy suitcases filled with camping and snorkeling gear, and hit the streets. We promptly missed the turn to the Circuito Interior, and ended up crossing the city on Eje 1 through the poorer Doctor’s colonia and past the Tepito metro station, and eventually reached Turmix on Sinaloa and Insurgentes via Chapultepec. It was closed for a Friday night, but the guard had our keys, and we loaded up our white Chevy Aveo, a small 4 door sedan that wouldn’t admit more than one of our big bags through its narrow mouth into the otherwise ample trunk space.

Susie drove while I navigated. Stopping at Costco in Polanco along the way, we purchased case of water, fruit, and snacks for our journey. Stopping at Beto Levy’s apartment on La Grange, I started making use of my cell phone in Mexico, which has been handy, but will end up costing me a lot in expensive roaming fees (the bill eventually came to $250). He came down and presented us with the book, Sefarad de Ayer, Oy, I Manana, and we enjoyed a brief visit interrupted by his incoming calls.

Continuing on to Lily’s condo above La Herradura on Bosques de las Minas, I was impressed at how much progress has been made on the second level of the Periferico freeway since last July when construction hadn’t even started. Now, intermittent pillars of second-level sections dot the roadway, like something out of a Yes album. We managed to squeeze along from Homero past a few exits and dive deep under the freeway to familiar ground on the west side and ascended into the hills along Avenida Conscripto and our home for the night.

The first night with Lily and Lily was wonderful. Greetings were warm, and we brought out three of Lily’s constrictors and played with them for a while, then presented gifts. Lily showed off her painting, bright colors of geometric patterns. Calling Mauricio, he concluded that he was coming to join us, but that his parents, David and Tina, and Jacobo’s family, were not coming, as David did not feel well. Eventually, we ate a wonderful meal of braised beef tenderloin and potatoes, salad, and luxurious desserts, long before Mauricio arrived at 10pm with a friend, by which time we had already set up our nest on the living room floor. Then the amiable chit chat began until we were falling asleep sitting or standing, and at last we went to sleep while they continued chatting in the foyer.